Words from the Director
I am delighted to report that we have just received news from the Council of International Schools that we have been reaccredited and a long list of commendations regarding the quality of our work to provide an international education experience for our children. I would like to congratulate my staff and the whole community for this achievement.
We will be welcoming the Pre Kinder Class of 2034 for assessment tomorrow morning. It is an important time for them as they start to make friendships, some of which will last for as well as starting their journey towards being ABC ROCs. The community spirit and sense of being part of a team is a vital part of our community based education. In my role I am privileged to participate in this journey for many ABC students. I get to see their awe and wonder as our youngest learners explore their environment acquiring skills and following their curiosity and interest. It is a passion and a sense of fulfillment which we want our children to maintain throughout their lives. I also see how these skills are built on through our academic curriculum to develop the skills and attitudes needed to excel as our children move towards the Bilingual IB diploma. These experiences and this learning journey frame our children for the rest of their lives and we can see as an example of the end product, the great attitude and achievements of the Class of 2019. So the Class of 2034 are taking an important step this week and we are looking forward to welcoming them.
As a school which believes in developing all of the talents of our children we take sport, music and drama as essential parts of our curriculum. Our main focus is to ensure children are motivated to participate in these activities so they can discover their abilities. We also seek to ensure they become the best they want to be with high quality teaching and coaching. This requires commitment on all parts and we see it on a daily basis as children participate in sports practice, music lessons, drama rehearsals for Bugsy Malone and preparation for the regional Mathcounts next weekend. This afternoon we will be supporting the varsity boys football team, who are undefeated so far this season, as they play their latest Bilingual league game against our old friends the EA. Earlier this week our varsity girls team performed superbly against the EA.
I am ending this week with news of a celebration of the life of one of our ROCs. Diego Mina will be especially remembered in a mass on Saturday afternoon by many of us. He left a big mark in us as we remember his bravery, his compassion for others, his curiosity about the world and above all his friendship which is sorely missed. We continue to think and pray for him and his family.
I wish you all a safe and enjoyable weekend with your children.
MULTICULTURAL FESTIVAL OF ARTS 2019
We are pleased to inform you that this year, one more time, we have our Festival of Arts, in which students from eight bilingual institutions are participating. Registrations for enrolment in the Festival of Arts which culminates with public performances on 28 and 29 March are now open. You should have already received an email from the secretary in your section with all the information and the online registration form.
If you are interested in having your child participating in the multicultural Festival, please complete the online form no later than today, January 25, 2019. You must also pay $15.00 US dollars (non-refundable) for enrolment, which includes the Festival T-shirt and all the workshops. Payment will need to be made through the school's cashier.
Words from the Head of Primary
I want to start by apologising for the error I made last week regarding start times. Prepa and Grade 1 children start at 7.15am with Kinder and Pre-Kinder starting at 7.30am. Upper Primary students start at 7.10am.
A number of our teachers are undertaking a review of the reporting system in Primary. As a school we believe that effective reporting is a dialogue between parents, teachers and children in order to support the learning and progress of each and every child in the school. In order to make our reporting system more effective for all stakeholders the Primary School is beginning a review into how we report to parents. The first part of the review is looking at the December and July written reports. In order to do this we need your help.
A questionnaire will be coming to parents soon and we ask that you answer the questions as fully as possible so we get a good idea about your feelings towards the Primary School reporting. Thank you for your cooperation.
IPC- Two Amazing Entry Points this Week
2nd graders had an fantastic Entry Point for their new unit CHOCOLATE. The focus of the Entry Point was for the students to experience chocolate using their 5 senses. They did some predicting (guessing) activities and found out that chocolate can start as a solid, when heated turns to liquid and when cooled again it turns into a solid. They also discovered the melting point of chocolate.
Sometimes people choose to move and sometimes they are forced to move. Both can have an impact on their societies at home and places that they leave behind. There is also an impact on those that they join at the end of their journey. Students in 5th Grade had the opportunity to have a “forced migration” experience through our Moving People Entry Point. They had to evacuate because a war was taking place in their country. A sad reality for too many children in our World today! In our entry point they had to start their walk towards a safe refugee camp in Mexico. They had to keep their families together and be hopeful they would all make it safely through the journey.
The INTERNATIONAL FRIENDSHIP FAIR was a great success this year. We had a gorgeous warm day and blue sky in a morning. The Fair was full of activities, joy and enthusiasm, which brought many benefits to our students. This was an educational experience where children worked hard at their stalls but also had much fun.
We would like to thank all parents for participating and supporting this Fair. A big thank you also to all Lower Primary parents who sent their jars to make our Tombola another success.
Pre-K evaluations. This weekend we will start to evaluate the children who are hoping to join the ABC in August. They will spend two hours playing with our staff so that we can observe their social skills, their language skills and their independence. If you want your child to come into Pre-K in August please make sure you have signed up with Estefania Chacon so that your initial placement is confirmed.
In December we ran the Toy and the Shoe Box Campaigns in Primary. This yearly initiative has enabled the ABC to make a big difference to the lives of many children this past Christmas. The boxes and the toys were once again given to sick children at Hospital San Rafael in Santa Tecla. You can see the happiness on their faces. We hope this present made their illness a little less heavy.
MULTICULTURAL FESTIVAL OF ARTS 2019
We are pleased to inform you that this year we have our Festival of Arts, in which students from eight bilingual institutions are participating. Registrations for enrolment in the Festival of Arts are now open.
You should have already received an email from the secretary in your section with all the information and the online registration forms. If you are interested in having your child participating in the Multicultural Festival, please complete the online form no later than today, January 25, 2019. You must also pay $15.00 US dollars (non-refundable) for enrolment, which includes the Festival T-shirt and all the workshops. Payment will need to be made through the school's cashier
Dates for your diary
Lower Primary
Saturday 26th: Pre Kinder Entrance Evaluations Class 2034
Friday 1st : Kinder Gonzalez Assembly
Tuesday 5th: Field Trip Kinder González
Wednesday 6th: Field Trip Kinder Rampone
Thursday 7th: Field Trip Kinder Suarez
Upper Primary
January
Friday 25th - Grade 3 Camping - postponed
Wednesday 30th - 2nd Pineda Assembly
Wednesday 30th: 2nd Pineda Assembly
Thursday 31st : COESAL meeting 7:30 am (Parents only) - PAC
February
Wednesday 6th: 3rd Navas Assembly
Thursday 7th: COESAL meeting 7:30 am (mother- daughter/seminar room, father-son/Lecture Theatre)
Wednesday 13th: 2nd Hernández Assembly
Thursday 14th: COESAL meeting 7:30 am (Students only)
Wednesday 20th: Spanish Team Assembly
Words from the Head of Secondary
Dear parents and carers,
Our grade 7s and Grade 8s have finished their exams and we look forward to seeing their results! Next week our Grade 10 and Grade 12s will receive their MOCKS exam results, via a mock results day activity (G10 on Monday and G12 on Tuesday) This will be a perfect time to reflect and learn from their performance and set targets in order to raise their results even more in preparation for the real International examinations in May. Good luck!
Concerns
We continue to be concerned over various incidents we are dealing with regarding the wrong use of technology and social media. It is concerning to see that this spans across all Grades and ages.
I would like to ask your collaboration discussing the use of social media and electronic devices with your children, as when you give your child a mobile device which surpasses our school’s "firewall," you are trusting that they will be mature enough to handle that tool.
I also take this opportunity to remind parents of Grade 6 and Grade 7 students that they are not allowed to bring a mobile phone into school. This is a measure we have taken with our students’ wellbeing in mind, and well backed up by studies which demonstrate the detrimental effect on teenager’s behaviour, especially while at school. Allowing students to have access via their smartphones to social platforms while at school only serves to distract them from their learning opportunities and disconnect them from personal, live communication. Thank you for your collaboration with this important matter.
Dangerous Apps
We have become aware of an app called TELLONYM (17+) which our children are downloading to their phones. This (and many other apps) have a requirement to be 16 years or older to legally download them. This particular app is being used to make harsh comments of others in an anonymous way. Children are also sharing links of this site through their Snapchat and that enables them to promote others to download that app. Here is a very sad video made by a parent who lost their daughter on this topic. I must warn that it contains disturbing scenes but it is aimed at adults.
Please can you take a moment over the weekend to check your child’s mobile phone and talk to them about the dangers of posting and the digital footprint they are leaving behind with every photo, comment or video the upload or comment on, etc.
Another suggestion is that you check the # hashtags your child uses as these work as an invitation for the social platforms to make content of those topics more readily available to them in their homepages. This means that if your child uses words which are of a serious nature, information about that topic will become available to them. They are then left to make sense of what is sent their way through their social media.
Next week we celebrate Internet safety week and we will be addressing these issues at Assemblies and Life Skills sessions as well as via tutor periods and around campus.
On that note, I invite you to please make a note in your agendas now for our upcoming Parent Partnership evening which is coming up very soon.
More information will be sent regarding the topics but the titles should be enough to remind us of the importance of attending the session and taking advantage of the opportunity to discuss with other parents and our team about them.
We look forward to seeing many of you there!
Have a wonderful weekend,
Kind regards,
Natalia Cáceres Escalón
Dates for your diary
January
Friday 25th - Last day for Grades 7 and 8 exams
February
Friday 1st and Saturday 2nd - Mathscount competition in american School
Tuesday 5th - Parent Partnership Evening- Risky teen behaviours (all grades) - 6.00 pm, PAC
Wednesday 6th - Grade 10 Learning review Day, LRC
Tuesday 12th - Secondary DVA, 7:30 p.m. PAC
Friday 15th - Drop by Drop jeans Day
Tuesday 19th - Grade 11/12 Learning Review Day
Wednesday 20th to Saturday 2nd March - Geography trip to Iceland
Friday 22nd - Last Day of first half of term 2
Monday 25th to Friday 1st March - Half Term holidays - school closed
Tuesday 26th to Tuesday 5th March - KS4/5 New York MUN Trip
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